Role of Businesses in Addressing Climate Change

08-02-2017

On 19 December, FTA Director General Christian Ewert published an article in Euractiv on ‘Looking at environmental performance across the supply chain’. Touching on recent events such as the US elections and the COP 22 UN Climate Change Conference 2016, he pointed out the current challenges the world faces in tackling climate change. Moreover, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer broke new ground in environmental legislation, aimed at reducing the emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), one of the fastest growing greenhouse gases.

In the article, he stressed the important role that businesses play in implementing sustainable practices by directing attention to the indirect impact that a company’s global sourcing activities can have on the environment.

“The environmental impact of business activity is often mistakenly limited to the direct operations of companies. In reality, it is the environmental performance of the supply chain as a whole that needs to be looked into’’, wrote Mr Ewert.

He cites the Business Environmental Performance Initiative (BEPI) as a system designed to support companies on cutting down emissions in their supply chains. BEPI offers a single system that enables all companies sourcing all product types to address their environmental performance covering 11 environmental performance areas including Energy Use, Transport and Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and Emissions to Air.